The present invention is directed to a sign mounting system. More particularly, the invention pertains to an adjustable, channel-mount sign mounting bracket and a frameless sign holder for mounting to the bracket.
Consumers would readily recognize hundreds of different types of signs and sign systems used in retail settings. Signs and their mounts are available in a wide array of sizes, designs, and mounting arrangements. Typically, traditional stationary signs are mounted to support structures such as shelving, or from a vertical support element such as a shelf standard at the rear of shelves, or to vertical standards at the front of shelves. Such signs provide readily visible signage to direct consumers to merchandise stocked on the shelves.
While the signs are quite effective in directing a consumer's attention to a particular location, item, or product, because the signs must be mounted to shelf beams in particular, pre-determined ways, merchants have little flexibility in designing displays. A sign configured to be mounted to the top side of a shelf beam as a header cannot also attach to the bottom or front sides of the same beam for use as a shelf edge. To use both header and edge signs in their displays, merchants must stock multiple forms of signs or sign-holders, each with different means of mounting to the shelves' beams.
Signs require ready installation, to allow for simple display design changes. Many known sign mounting systems are permanent installations, so that removing and relocating the mounting systems is complicated, if not impossible. Many known signs and sign-holders are attached to their mounts via screws, hinges, or other mechanical elements. Even if these signs and sign-holders can be relocated to other sites, the additional elements increase the overall cost of the signs as well as the labor required to mount them effectively.
Many sign mounting systems are too large and cumbersome to fit in between the wires of the wire decking grids popular with many warehouses and warehouse stores. Instead, these signs must be placed to the side or in another, less immediate location. Another type of sign mounting system rigidly attaches a sign's body to a support structure. Such a rigid sign mount cannot readily absorb impacts, such as may occur when the sign is accidentally struck by a consumer, resulting in signage breaks or bends. Rigid sign mounts further cannot lift up or flex down to allow consumers better access to displayed products.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an adjustable sign mounting system that readily attaches to both the top sides of shelf beams as a header and the bottom and front sides of the same beams as a shelf edge. Desirably, such a sign mounting system is spring-loaded and can be used with any of a variety of types of retail display arrangements (e.g. overstock shelving, pallet rack shelving, and the like). Most desirably, the signs or sign-holders are interchangeable and engage directly with their mounts, without the use of mechanical elements.